Frustrated police north of Toronto have tried and tried to curb drinking and driving and yet the number of impaired motorists they catch rises every year. Out of desperation over frightful carnage on York Region’s roads, police have turned to one of humanity’s oldest forms of community policing: the name-and-shame game.

York Regional Police joined some other police forces this week in a policy change to publicly release the name and age of all motorists criminally charged with impaired driving.

The force shies away from calling it a name-and-shame campaign but accepts the new policy aims to use humiliation as a route to compliance.

“The purpose is deterrence,” said Const. Andy Pattenden, a York police spokesman.

“We hope that people would be embarrassed to be charged for impaired driving, that they wouldn’t want their employer, their friends, their family knowing about it, because it is an embarrassing thing.

“Does shame come along with it? Absolutely.”

The police reaction in York comes after public tragedy.

In 2015, Jennifer Neville-Lake’s three young children and her father were killed when a vehicle driven by a drunk Marco Muzzo slammed into their minivan. The loss unleashed a wave of public anger and grief. The adorable faces of the children, the intense grief of their family and the prominence of Muzzo’s family led to profuse coverage.

York police expected the intense impact of the crash on the community to lead to fewer impaired driving incidents.

“Instead, it’s gone up. Steadily, every year,” said Pattenden, exasperation showing in his voice. He said York officers laid about 1,400 criminal impaired charges so far this year. There were about 1,200 at this point last year and 1,100 the year before.

We hope that people would be embarrassed to be charged for impaired driving

“What is it going to take?

“There is nobody in York Region who doesn’t know that drinking and driving is wrong, that’s its dangerous, illegal. And it’s not working.”

The new policy came from the top: “It’s clear that something has to change,” said York Police Chief Eric Jolliffe, “we are not giving up.”

The policy is to “make impaired driving socially unacceptable” and to allow the community to keep an eye on those on the list and notify police if they choose to drive while under suspension, Jolliffe said.

Several Ontario services are already doing the same, including Halton police, Niagara police and Durham police.

Andrew Murie, the chief executive officer of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, supports the policy change, although he says there are no studies proving it reduces impaired driving.

Even if the list of names released by police doesn’t stop many others from joining it, it at least sends one message: that impaired driving is no longer treated differently by police from other crimes, he said.

Burglars and fraudsters, drug dealers and rapists, and others charged with criminal code infractions routinely have their names publicly released by police.

Someone caught stealing a car would have their name released but someone caught driving their own car while impaired would not.

Even though, said Pattenden, being drunk behind the wheel makes a moving car a “loaded weapon.”

It likely speaks to a different social element, those who would be unlikely to commit most types of stereotypical street crimes but might drive home from a party where they overindulged.

There is nobody in York Region who doesn’t know that drinking and driving is wrong, that’s its dangerous, illegal. And it’s not working

“It used to be that drinking and driving wasn’t seen as a real crime — ‘anybody could do that and I’m just lucky I’m not one of those,’“ said Murie.

“That used to be a problem in the judicial system — a lot of the judges were impaired drivers themselves and so, consequently, were very lenient on impaired drivers. That has totally changed

“If police tried to do this 15 or 20 years ago, I think there would have been a lot more pushback.”

Name-and-shame has a long tradition as a form of corrective punishment.

It is a time-honoured way for a community to express dismay and disgust, seen as one of the earliest forms of community policing; bad behaviour was pointed out, sometimes by neighbours gathering outside a house with pitchforks.

Once upon a time, offenders were placed in medieval stocks and held in a town square for public humiliation.

More recently is has been used by government agencies to encourage businesses or people to comply with initiatives, such as securities regulation or environmental controls. International organizations often turn to naming and shaming rogue nations who harbour tax cheats or money launderers.

Sometimes the tactic is used against police, with citizens recording officers behaving badly and posting it on social media.

A whole genre of social media activism is consumed with naming and shaming others for various real or perceived sins. People have been fired from their jobs after a thorough social media shaming.

It is particularly frustrating because impaired driving is 100 per cent preventable. It’s probably the most preventable crime. It is a choice

A Calgary neighbourhood plagued by prostitution started posting photos of cars and publishing licence plates of vehicles regularly seen cruising their streets when nothing else seemed to stem the traffic. Past debates in policing have been over whether the names of sex workers or their clients should be released.

Pattenden said the key to the York policy’s success is that officers will not pick and choose which cases to add and who not to name.

“Everybody who is charged will be on that list,” he said.

He said the effectiveness of crime prevention initiatives can be difficult to gauge but York police are certain what they have tried in the past isn’t working on its own.

“It is particularly frustrating because impaired driving is 100 per cent preventable. It’s probably the most preventable crime. It is a choice.”

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We work all the time back and forth between private and public, so often times if families don't want to wait they will often opt to start privately and then when their name comes up we will transition them over to the public sector."

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When a horrific crash didn't reduce drunk driving, this police force decided to name and shame